


(find a way) back home to you

by snitches_get_stitches



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - August Rush, Alternate Universe - Homeless, Alternate Universe - Orphans, Busking, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-24
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 14:44:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2352101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snitches_get_stitches/pseuds/snitches_get_stitches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Now go run back to your momma, kid, or wherever you came from.”</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Tyler blinked. “I don’t know where she is.”</i>
  <br/>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter i

**Author's Note:**

> so i've had an august rush au kind of brewing in my head for a loooooooong time and i finally manned up and wrote some of it. i have a few more parts written after this but i haven't finished the whole piece yet, so for now this'll stand alone until i feel comfortable posting the next bit.
> 
> if you don't really know what happens in august rush, basically this orphan runs away from the boy's home he was raised in to go "follow the music" and find his parents. but he also has this freakishly innate musical talent and is taken in by this guy named wizard, this vagrant musician with abusive tendencies who sort of runs a business of street-busking homeless kids. i'll let you guys try to figure out who i have for wizard later.
> 
> also, don't worry, josh WILL show up in later parts of the story.
> 
> title from maroon 5's "sunday morning", which tyler covers very briefly in the behind the scenes for hoty.
> 
> ((btw tyler is like ~16 in this fic))

“Come on, let's get out of here," Wizard growled as he shouldered his way out of the coffee shop. Tyler frowned, tripping slightly as he bent to pick up his ukulele case and shove it under his arm, before he righted himself and shuffled after him. "What happened?" Wizard didn't look very happy. In fact, he looked quite mad.

 

"You're not playing there tonight if that asshole won't pay up," he grumbled. "Deal's off. We're going home."

 

Tyler felt his face fall, and slowed to a stop. "But," he started, fingers sliding into position in the fret board. "I wanna play. I have to play, boss, I have to let them he--"

 

"Well, you're not playing, okay?"

 

"But--"

 

Tyler yelped as he felt the front of his shirt being grabbed, before he was swung around and slammed into a brick wall just inside the alley. Wizard pushed himself close until they were practically breathing the same air, and Tyler gulped as he continued.

 

"Listen, you play when I say play, you sleep when I say sleep, you _breathe_ when I say _breathe_! You got that, boy?"

 

Tyler nodded, swallowing, eyes wide.

 

Wizard's grip on his shirt slackened, and he exhaled shakily. "I--I'm sorry, Tyler. You just--you do not know how precious your gift is. You're just a kid, you don't know. I do, Tyler."

  
He stood back up to his full height, and Tyler clutched his ukulele close. "Come on. Let's head home."


	2. chapter ii

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i'm thinking that when i'm done posting all of these chapters, i'm just gonna combine them all into one piece. because i really don't like how it's broken up. but you guys can tell me what you think, i guess.
> 
> also, italics are flashbacks, in case you couldn't tell.

_“Now go run back to your momma, kid, or wherever you came from.”_

_Tyler blinked. “I don’t know where she is.”_

_The other boy--Josh, he guessed, judging from the “donations appreciated” sign that misspelled “musical jenius” taped haphazardly onto one of his bucket-drums--stared blankly at him for a moment before groaning up at the sky._

_“Great,” he said. “That’s just great. C’mon, dude, like--the cops show up around here at, like, six, tell ‘em you went AWOL or you can’t find your way home or whatever and they’ll get you back home soo--”_

_“I don’t want to go back,” Tyler interrupted._

_Another blank stare, and then a roll of his eyes. Dark, dark brown eyes, that matched his lashes. “That’s--that’s fine, I guess, whatever, this day’s been a bust anyway...”_

_Tyler silently watched him start packing up shop, turning the buckets over so they were right-side-up again and stacking them neatly inside each other, before he replied. “I don’t--I don’t have a place to stay.”_

_Josh suddenly whirled on him, and Tyler took an instinctive step back, heart throbbing. “Do I_ look _like a real estate tycoon to you? Back the fuck off, kid, seriously--”_

_“Where did you learn?” Tyler interrupted, again, ignoring his instincts and pushing forward into the other’s space. Josh blinked at him before his shoulders slumped and his scowl lessened._

_“You really don’t have anywhere?” Tyler shook his head, and the other looked thoughtful. When he turned his head just right, his nose ring caught the light and glinted at Tyler, warmly. “Alright, fine, I’ll take ya home, but you’re buying me a fucking pizza. Come on.”_

 

x

 

Tyler was absently playing on his uke when Josh shuffled up to him awkwardly.

 

“So,” he started awkwardly, toeing at the ground, “I guess Wizard didn’t let you play last night, huh?”

 

Tyler shook his head, the music stopping as he wrapped his hands tightly around the fretboard and set a hand over the strings. “He said that they wouldn’t pay up.”

 

He heard a sigh from above before Josh fell neatly to his knees beside him, and Tyler turned to look at him, sadly. Josh looked pretty bummed, too, but he mostly just looked sympathetic. “Yeah, he’ll do that. Kinda pisses me off, though, like, I don’t care about the money, it’s not like we get to use it anyway.” He flicked at a rock on the ground. “But we do need to think about that shit, too, yanno. Making money. Wizard’s always saying that if he hadn’t taken my ass in I’d be out sellin’ it in the street instead. ”

 

Something in Tyler seized up at that. “I just want to be heard.”

 

Josh snorted next to him. “Yeah, we all do. But we gotta eat, too.”

  
Before he could finish, a door opened somewhere in the lower area of the theatre, and Josh and Tyler were already scuttling down the stairs, hands digging into their jeans, before Wizard could holler for them to empty their pockets of the day’s earnings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so any ideas as to who's wizard yet? ;)


	3. chapter iii

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so im terrible at making deadlines for myself

“ _Yo, you better hide this shit before Wizard shows,” a blonde said as he took a slice of pizza for himself. “He’ll be pissed if he sees you bought a pizza.”_

_“I told you, Patrick,” Josh sighed out, rolling his eyes and propping his feet up on a cardboard box. “I didn’t take no family money. Citizen bought it. Ain’t that right, kid?” Josh turned to Tyler._

_But before Tyler even had a chance to answer, there’s suddenly a knife landing with a loud thunk in the middle of the table, blade embedded deep within the wood and handle quivering._

_“Hola, fellow music-lovers! Papa’s home!”_

_Tyler whirled around to see a greasy-looking man with a snide grin and a tattoos scattered up both arms walking briskly down one of the wooden construction ramps toward them, arms spread wide as in in greeting. His gaze flicks over to the empty pizza box.“Oh, who likes pizza? I love pizza.” He laughs, withdrawing his knife from the table and still grinning, but something about it left Tyler feeling deeply unsettled._

_The other kids seemed to share this sentiment; many averted their gazes, and a handful of them shifted uncomfortably. Guiltily._

_No one breathed a word._

_Suddenly the man’s smile dropped, and so did Tyler’s stomach._

_“Who did this?” the man--who Tyler supposed was Wizard--demanded. The room was silent. “I said,_ who fucking did this _???”_

_Josh shifted as if to get up, avoiding the Wizard’s gaze, but his eyes were drawn immediately to the drummer’s hunched form._

_"Joshua.” He gestured with the knife for him to come over. Tyler fisted his hand in his jeans, nervous._

_“I told you, boss,” Josh mumbled as he stumbled over. “I didn’t spend no goddamn family money. He bought it!” he made a wide gesture with his arm over to Tyler, and Wizard’s eyes darted over to him. Tyler had to resist the urge to make a run for it._

_“Come on over here, kid.” The whole room turned towards him expectedly, but Tyler was frozen to the spot. “NOW!”_

_Tyler jumped, and hastily got to his feet, scurrying over to the man in an awkward jumble of limbs, anxious. His hands were shaking._

_However, when he looked up, Wizard’s face was gentle. “What’s your name, son?”_

_Tyler blinked up at him. “Tyler, sir.”_

_“Tyler,” Wizard says, testing the name out. “Lemme see your hands, Tyler. Come on, show me.”_

_Confused, Tyler offered them up and Wizard took them in his own, observing them and examining his fingers in particular. “You’ve never played a note in your life, son,” he noted as he ran his thumb over the baby-soft pads of Tyler’s fingertips. He squeezed them once, before he released them again. “What are you doing here, kid?” His voice was more quiet, this time, nearly sympathetic, as if he couldn't imagine what sort of situation would leave a sixteen-year-old boy wandering the streets of New York City alone, with nothing more than twelve bucks in his pocket and the clothes on his back._

_Tyler told the truth._

_"I just--followed the music.”_

x

"I can't hear the music anymore," Tyler remarked one day, as he and Patrick left the theatre for their respective street-busking spots, ukulele case tucked under Tyler’s arm and guitar case thrown over Patrick’s back, practically dorfing him. "Like, I when I first heard Josh play, it was so loud... it was everywhere. Now I can hardly hear it at all."

Patrick furrowed his eyebrows. "Dude, what are you talking about?"

Tyler shrugged. "I don't know. Never mind." He doesn't mention that the music used to help drown out the voices. He doesn't mention the voices at all. "I guess I was just thinking--thinking that maybe it's time for me to go."

Patrick whirled around to face him at that, eyebrows shooting up into his god-awful bleach-job fringe. "What? Dude, if Wizard hears you talking treachery you're gonna so get your ass kicked. You don't just up and leave the biz like that, y'know." Blonde eyebrows now scrunched in a furrow, he reluctantly swung back around and resumed walking. "Especially when you reel in as much money as you do. Plus, Wizard'll take back your uke. You wouldn't exactly be able to busk on your own."

Tyler shrugged, again. "I'd figure something out. I just need to follow the music."

Patrick rolled his eyes, coming to a stop at the edge of a park. "Whatever, man. You're fucking crazy. Now get your skinny ass outta my lane, man, I gotta set up shop."


End file.
